On Thursday, May 15, 2014, sankarshan <foss.mailinglists@gmail.com> wrote:
On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 11:18 PM, Harsh Kothari
<harshkothari410@gmail.com> wrote:
> As everyone know that currently Wikimedia Hackathon 2014 is going on at
> Zurich. Tomorrow at 9:30 AM (Zurich) and (1:00 PM IST) we are going to
> discuss about Wikimedia Hackathons / Devcamps in India / Asia. So everyone
> is welcome to join this discussion.
>
> Here is the link of Hangout :
> https://plus.google.com/b/103470172168784626509/events/cpur8pufnpqcdecitg7bj55fuk8
Did anyone make a set of notes from the session? It helps to go
through those along with watching the video.
Sorry, we didn't take notes. I'm not aware of further discussion or action taken, though.
The bottom line is clear: the Wikimedia technical community misses annual hackathons in Asia, and specifically in India. The (European) Wikimedia Hackathon is a successful model that could be followed:
* Unconference model focused on hands-on work, training, and technical discussions.
* Run in a different location every year, with different local organizers supported by the Wikimedia Foundation's Engineering Community team and other volunteers in volved in previous years' events.
* Lightweight organization focused on simplicity and effectiveness, with almost no overhead.
* Budget for the organization approved in advance (currently via FDC, we are discussing the possibility of a direct grant from the WMF) + support from the WMF and different chapters for travel sponsorship.
* The amount of participants is secondary. A critical mass is needed (say 30-40 people?) but becoming a bug event is not a goal. The focus is productive collaboration and consolidation of the local technical community.
We discussed that October-November could be a good time for this event. Pleasant weather in India and other popular Asian destinations, and good separation from EU Hackathon, Wikimania, and Architecture Summit in USA.
I'm hoping to send a formal call for EU Hackathon venues later this week. I was thinking of reusing the call for Asia and other territories interested in organizing hackathons in the next 12 months.
--
Quim Gil
Engineering Community Manager @ Wikimedia Foundation
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil